Good credit management is one aspect of a solid foundation for financial stability, and maintaining good credit can help a consumer save money and help fight identity theft.
Brian Pampuro, a personal financial coach at Fleet and Family Support Center aboard Naval Support Activity Bethesda, said good credit gives you more options and more “bang for your buck” as a buyer.
“A higher credit score gives the consumer more freedom of purchasing power, said Pampuro. “The lower the credit score the higher the costs will be to the consumer, and in some cases the inability to even get credit.”
Proper management of credit can lead to savings down the road.
“If you manage your credit well and maintain a good credit score over the course of a lifetime you can literally save hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest rate fees,” said Pampuro. “Every time a person signs a loan or swipes a card, every time they use money that is not theirs that they are going to have to pay back — that equals future labor.”
One of the most important reasons for knowing your credit score and and reviewing your report is to help prevent identity theft.
“Being a consumer in this day and age, we have a lot of people whose identity is being stolen,” said Pampuro. “Identity theft can be very damaging to a person’s finances.”
When Pampuro started out as a financial coach 10 years ago, if a client asked if they needed credit monitoring he would have said no they could look at their own credit report and be fine. But when asked that same question today he would suggest signing up for it.
“I use credit monitoring for peace of mind,” said Pampuro.
In 2015 there was a breach in the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that put a lot of service members and Department of Defense personnel at risk for identity theft.
“Millions of individuals, through no fault of their own, had their personal information stolen and we’re committed to standing by them, supporting them, and protecting them against further victimization,” said OPM Acting Director Beth Cobert in a Sept. 1, 2015 statement. “And as someone whose own information was stolen, I completely understand the concern and frustration people are feeling.”
According to Pampuro many of the service members and DOD civilians had their identity stolen through fake leave and earning statements (LES).
“I had a client that came in that had their identity stolen, and the bank was able to get copies of the LES that were submitted as the fraudulent loan application, and the LES that was submitted was completely fake,” said Pampuro. “There are people out there that have access to these programs and we have a lot of people out there who are devious and they are willing to put anybody they can at risk by stealing their identity.”
An identity can be stolen through something as simple as a misspelling of a name or a street address.
“There is a great chance that everyone has an error on their credit report whether it is something as simple as misspelling of a name or the addition of an unneeded suffix that causes many problems when it comes to a credit report,” said Pampuro.
Service members and DOD civilians are able to request a free credit report at www.AnnualCreditReport.com. Consumers are entitled by law to one free credit report per year from each of the three major credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion – for a total of three reports every year.
For more information about credit reports and credit scores and how to protect your identity visit: http://go.usa.gov/xZYSz or call (301) 319-4087.
| Date Taken: | 09.15.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 09.16.2016 09:24 |
| Story ID: | 209804 |
| Location: | BETHESDA, MARYLAND, US |
| Web Views: | 238 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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